Half Gallon of Hell

Wow, I think this may be the longest I've gone without writing a post since I started this damn blog. You know, over TWO YEARS ago! Oops.

Life has been insane and has completely kicked my butt these past few weeks. All I feel like doing is curling up on the couch, watching Gilmore Girls, and eating ice cream.

So, while I could spend this post whining and detailing the ten things going on that are stressing me out, etc, instead I am going to rant about one, small specific thing that happened this past weekend.

I mentioned that all I want to do is sit on my butt cheeks and eat ice cream, yes? Well, over the weekend, I decided that I wanted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. And, since I'm B-to-the-Roke (one of the ten things that is stressing me out these days), I decided to be cheap about it and buy the Kroger brand stuff. It looked safe enough: It had a lovely picture of what looked to be perfectly yummy cookie dough ice cream on it, and it said "Jammed" on it, suggesting that the ice cream was jammed with cookie dough. Vanilla ice cream "jammed" with chunks of cookie dough? Yes, please! Chris tried to convince me not to buy the store brand stuff, but I was stubborn and cheap and did it anyways.

What I didn't notice until we got it home is that the carton says "dairy dessert" on it; nowhere were the words  "ice cream." Hmmmm. Strange. Meh, I was sure it would be fine.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, let this be a cautionary tale to you. DO NOT BUY "DAIRY DESSERT" instead of ice cream. It's a horrible impostor. Chris also looked at the ingredient list, and there were about 50 ingredients, most of which were preservatives and other bad things with long names. Blech. It was not good at all. The consistency was so weird, and the cookie dough just tasted like chunks of salt water taffy. Chris and I both also had stomach cramps after eating it. Fun times.

I did some googling, and apparently companies are starting to manufacture their frozen products in a cheaper way, but they're not legally allowed to call their new, preservative-filled food "ice cream." Cuz it's NOT.

Anyways, on Sunday, after Chris left, I found myself at Kroger buying name brand Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ICE CREAM, because I could not bear to eat any more of the Half-Gallon-of-Hell that was the Dairy Dessert. I threw it away, in fact. So, I ended up spending MORE money in total by cheaping out and getting the Kroger brand nastiness in the first place. Morals of the story: Never cheap out on the important things in life (like dessert! and wine!), and NEVER buy anything called "dairy dessert."

Sheesh.

The Vegetables of My Labor

You guys! I just ran out into the rain and snipped some basil leaves from my garden. And I made a small insalata caprese using that basil. And then I ate it. AND IT WAS GOOD!

Sorry, it's just extremely satisfying to have thrown itty bitty seeds into the ground and to have watered them, watched them grow, and then to have gotten to eat the fruits (vegetables) of that labor.

Basil!

Basil!

Caprese!

Anyways, Chris came home this weekend so we could start packing up our stuff. Our lease is up at the end of July!

We grilled out on Saturday night, which was fun and delicious!

Leeks, squash, brussels sprouts, potatoes with evoo, italian seasoning, garlic, salt, and sriracha.

Grill!

Chris looking deliciously scruffy.

In other news, I'm now on Week 3 of Couch to 5k! Woo!

Back to the Garden

First off, happy Memorial Day to everyone out there. I hope everyone is taking a moment to remember what this day off is really for, amongst the shopping and the BBQing.

Chris came home this weekend, but he had to leave Sunday evening. One thing I was excited to show him when he got home was how the veggie garden I planted was doing. I've never tried a garden before, so I'm a bit unexperienced. But, things are growing, which is the goal, right?

I planted carrots:

Squash:



Tomatoes:

Basil:

Spinach:

And lettuce...

Well, there used to be a lovely-looking young head of lettuce there.  two days ago I got to show Chris how proud I was of my lettuce. Then yesterday, when I went out ot water the garden, it was gone. Frowny face. The thing is, I have a fence around the garden:

So, I thought that maybe the many birds in our backyard were rooting around in there, or that maybe there was a mole in the garden or something. But, today, I think I may have found the culprit:

So, my question to those of you with green thumbs is this: Could this guy have gotten under my fence and then back out without really bending it at all or anything? Would he have gotten in there, eaten the lettuce, and then left everything else there? If not, what else could be cherry-picking my lettuce? What can I do to keep my plants safe without putting poison on them?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! It's so rewarding to watch these little soon-to-be-veggies grow!

Cooking For One

My last post touched on the fact that Chris left for the oyster aquaculture program. What I haven't yet mentioned is just how hard it is for me to be away from him so much of the time. I assume most couples have this hard of a time when spending this much time apart. But, I guess I thought I'd be able to handle it better than I have. Of course I knew I'd miss Chris. But man, it's been so hard. Even before we lived together, we pretty much saw each other every single day.

And, well, he's just my best friend (and fiance... woot woot!), and I tell him everything. And it's hard to have mostly phone contact with the person you love to embrace on a daily basis. AND, I'm a crazy-emotional female who cries when she is feeling... well, pretty much anything. So, needless to say, I've been crying buckets these days.

But, Chris is enjoying the new job and doing well at it. He's got a river view from his abode, and his days seem to incorporate a split of manual labor and lab work. And I'm just proud. He's growing oysters, which are not only one of the best-tasting foods ever, but which also filter 20-30 gallons of water per day (EACH oyster does that!). He's helping to keep the Chesapeake Bay clean!

Anyways, now I'm going to switch gears from sappy to silly.

One of the things that's been hard to adjust to with Chris gone is cooking. That is, cooking for only one person. Part of the problem is that everything at the store seems packaged for a family of four. Even the produce is that way! If I want some avocado with dinner, I have to cut one open. I can't eat a whole one, but if I don't, the rest goes bad. If I buy the variety of veggies and fruits that I want to keep in the house, I either have to go to the grocery store every day and buy small amounts of things, or I have to buy them all at once and gorge myself ont them to keep them from going bad. A can of anything is too much for one. A box of anything is too much for one. Anyways, I have tupperwares FULL of food in the fridge right now!

Chris and I really enjoy making meals together, so when I'm cooking for myself, I'm always thinking of him.

So, I'll leave you with these lines from Joni Mithcell:

"And when he's gone, me and them lonesome blues collide

The bed's too big, the frying pan's too wide..."

On Pins and Needles

At the crack of dawn on Friday morning, I have to go get blood taken. And the doctor said I have to fast for 12 hours before the procedure. I'm pretty sure that means I will end up turning white as a ghost and then passing out, cracking my head open on a counter, and, ultimately, dying.

Now, that may seem dramatic, but that's only because I have this pretty intense fear of needles. People were not meant to have things STUCK into their flesh and blood. Nope, not at all.

So, I went in to talk about getting my thyroid checked (thyroid issues run in my familiy), and the doctor said I need to get blood taken to do so.

And the fasting thing is, I guess, because they're also checking my blood sugar and whether I'm anemic and blah blah blah. All I can think is that as soon as I know I can't have food, I will not be able to stop thinking about food.

Now I'm going to tell a super-embarassing story to get across how afraid of needles I am:

When I first came off of antidepressants, I had a really hard time handling anxiety... it was like I was on the pills for so long that I forgot how to handle the hard stuff without help. So, I went to the doctor to discuss it, and, because my blood pressure was high (white coat syndrome is what that turned out to be about), they decided to take blood. With no warning. So I totally freaked. In fact, I cried. Yes, I cried at the doctor's office at age 23.

Oy, so, when the nurse saw just how freaked out I was, she had me lie down on a doctor's table, and she used an infant's needle to draw the blood. I continued crying during the procedure, and, tears started pouring into my ears since I was lying down.

Well, I didn't die, but, later, I developed swimmer's ear. Yes, from crying. So, I guess it was really crier's ear. So I had to go buy that stuff that evaporates fluid in your ears.

The end.

Wish me luck Friday morning. I'll report back.

Chew On This!

Warning: There is a reason why this post is labeled "TMI!"

So, I seem to have inherited a habit that my father has, which is to literally inhale my food. Let me clarify: My dad eats so quickly that I'm pretty sure that I've never actually seen him take a bite before. Everytime I sit down to eat with him at the table, I bow down to take my first bite, and by the time I look up, he's done. And that's after he served everyone else first and then sat down to eat himself!

I share this habit, though not quite to my dad's extent. I'm not sure if this was learned (his mother, my grandmother, eats pretty quickly), or if it was the result of the fact that my dad was child #5 of 6 (and getting food was a competition?), but, for whatever reason, he zooms through every meal.

Anyways, lately I've realized that the way that I am able to eat so quickly is that I don't really chew my food. Like, at all (no swallowing jokes, please!).

Also, lately, especially at work, I've been having a problem after I eat my breakfast. And that is that my abdomen feels like it's going to explode about 1/2 an hour after I'm done eating. Yup, gas (T! M! I!). And I started getting really worried thinking I was developing an intolerance to lactose or gluten or something, but, I've finally figured it out: It's because I don't chew.

Chris off-handedly mentioned the other day that people digest carbohydrates mostly with their spit while they chew. This got me thinking: I eat a breakfast chock-full of whole grains every weekday morning, and I most likely don't do that whole spit-digesting thing. So, for the past three days in a row, I have made a point to chew my food (it's weird because it's actually really hard for me to do! I'm not used to it at all!), and guess what? No badness anymore! Yay!

I've read some articles about "Mindful Eating" before (which is essentially when you take your time eating and enjoy every bite in order to be completely in the present), but now I'm totally sold. The problem is that I've been eating the way I do since I can remember. Old habits die hard, so "they" say. It's like I'm programmed to stuff as much food as fast as I can into my body (like Coltrane does when I feed him)... Perhaps this is a survival instinct-type thing? The other issue with this is the fact that the brain takes like 20-mintues to register the "full" feeling, so it's easy for me to overeat.

Anyways, I'm going to really try to chew from now on. Wish me luck.

Will Eat for Food: Part 2 of 2

Every Thursday, I try to make a new dish for dinner. You know why? Because I am sick of all the stuff I make all the time. As Chris would say, "BOOOOOOOOOORING..." Also, as I've mentioned, I'm trying to be a little healthier.

Anyways, Thursdays are the days where I have a little time to whip something interesting up before Chris gets home. I wish I'd started taking pictures of all the dishes I've tried to make, but I didn't until recently.

The thing that first inpsired me to try making new things was a magazine I found in this cottage that Chris's parents stayed in when they came down to visit in April. The magazine is called Eating Well, and I thought that pretty much everything in it sounded wonderfully delicious and healthy. So, I stole the magazine, naturally.

I made this AMAZING recipe out of it that was oven-roasted leeks with chicken and a little bit of cream over whole-wheat pasta. Since I didn't get a picture of it, here's the picture from the magazine:

And holy shit, it was GOOD. I could eat it once a week!

I also recently made this yummy egg dish with smoked salmon and avocado (two of my favorite things... seriously, if I could only pick two foods to eat for the rest of my life, I'm pretty sure they would be salmon and avocado). Check it out:

The dressing on the salad in the picture came from Eating Well also. It's an avocado-cilantro dressing. It was ok... not spectacular.

Let's see, I made Mediterranean wraps (with cous-cous, parsley, lemon, feta, tomatoes, cucumbers, and chicken) a couple weeks ago, and I made my own turkey burgers last week.

Tonight, I'm making seared tuna. I made a marinade out of soy sauce, wasabi, brown sugar, rice vinegar, and garlic, and I will be throwing it on a pan of hot oil for about 30-seconds. I'm also making a veggie stir fry with rice noodles to go along with it. Yum.

I will try to keep documenting my cooking experiments, as it will also keep me accountable in making something new and healthy each week.

Suggestions are more than welcome!

Will Eat for Food: Part 1 of 2

I'm trying to be relatively healthy of late, but there's just one catch:

I. Love. Food.

I love shopping for food, buying food, cooking food, smelling food, eating food, drinking wine with food, and I love devouring any and all of the leftovers the next day. I love food other people make. I love the Food Network. I love looking at fresh, colorful food in a market. I love reading recipes. I love food blogs and columns. I love imagining what certain types of dishes will taste like. I love eating with my hands, eating with a fork and knife, and eating with chopsticks. I love sandwiches. I love melted things. I love hot food and cold food. I love sweet things and tart things. Salt is heavenly. If something tastes good, I love to eat as much of it as I can. And then maybe some more.

This past Thanksgiving, I injured myself from eating too much. I was couch-ridden and moaning for four hours. I'd do it again, too.

So, it does not come naturally to me to practice the whole "all things in moderation" credo when it comes to food. Not at all. If it's good, I want as much of it as possible.

But, lately I've been doing alright, and here's how: I've found a few new things that are good for me that I LOVE, and I've stopped being as much of a miser as usual (yay for my job!) and started letting myself spend a little more money to get things that I know I love that are wonderful and healthy. Also, putting aside portions ahead of time (while you're NOT hungry!) is incredibly helpful. So, here are my typical meals:

Breakfast: Now, I love a big, greasy breakfast. But during the week, I keep it healthy and yummy:

• Kashi GoLean Crunch Cereal- 1 cup with skim milk
• 4-5 big strawberries
• A hardboiled egg

(The Kashi is a recent purchase and good lord, it's good. It's a little expensive, but I think it's worth it. Strawberries are something to buy when they're in-season, and a carton lasts me three breakfasts. And the bun LOVES strawberry tops. The hardboiled eggs are great because I can make them all at once for the whole work week. I'm so satisfied after this breakfast, that I'm able to wait a little longer to eat lunch.)

Lunch: The place where I work is surrounded by amazing restaurants and food vendors. This can be good, and this can be bad. The best thing I have access to is a reasonably-priced salad bar next door... I make my lunch salad with:

• 1/2 romaine Lettuce, 1/2 spinach
• Shredded carrots
• Cucumbers
• Artichoke hearts
• Wasabi peas
• Artificial crab meat
• Cheddar cheese
• Balsamic vinegar
• Pineapple on the side

(I will also admit to often buying a chocolate chunk cookie along with my salad...)

Dinner: This is the hardest meal to keep healthy for me. Especially because I either eat what Chris makes or try to make something we'll both like. Here's a typical I-Don't-Want-to-Spend-Too-Much-Time-On-Dinner healthy-ish meal that I make:

• Salmon fillet with a little brown sugar and brown mustard
• Cous-cous
• Salad or asparagus or steamed broccoli 

(I wish I could eat salmon every single day. Wait, no! Moderation!)

You'll notice in the title that this is Part 1 of 2. That's because I also want to do a post on something I've been trying to do lately, which is to try making a new recipe once a week. It's been fun, mostly healthy, and yummy.

Mmmm, food.